Share “March protests immigrant's slaying in Greece”

March protests immigrant's slaying in Greece

Published on NewsOK
Modified: January 19, 2013 at 2:21 pm •
Published: January 19, 2013

Advertisement

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Several thousand people marched through central Athens on Saturday to protest a spate of anti-immigrant attacks in Greece, including the fatal stabbing of a 27-year-old Pakistani immigrant by suspected right-wing extremists.

Mourners gather in front of the coffin carrying the body of Shehzad Luqman, a Pakistani immigrant who was murdered on Thursday after being stabbed by suspected extreme rightists, during a ceremony in front of the city Hall in Athens on Saturday, Jan. 19 2013. An estimated 3,000 people marched through central Athens in protest at a spate of anti-immigrant attacks that turned fatal Thursday when a 27-year-old Pakistani immigrant was stabbed by suspected extreme rightists. (AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

Earlier in the day about 150 members of Greece's Pakistani community and a handful of Greeks gathered outside Athens City Hall to say prayers and pay their respects to Shehzad Luqman, the Pakistani who died Thursday. His coffin was displayed on the ground while mourners unfurled a banner in Greek and English reading "Punishment to the fascist murderers of Shehzad Luqman." A hearse took the coffin away at the end of the ceremony.

"We want to be peaceful. We are simple workers, and we will not do what the fascists do. In the last three years they have attacked 700 to 800 people. ... We go to our jobs and they attack us. It's the job of the police to arrest these people and send them to jail," Javied Aslam, head of Greece's Pakistani community, said after the prayers.

Greece has been suffering a surge in anti-immigration sentiment during its 3-year-old economic crisis, which has demolished living standards and led to high unemployment. The country also has long been the main gateway for illegal immigrants entering the European Union, with up to one-tenth of the nation's population born abroad.

Saturday's march was to be followed by a concert at Athens' Syntagma square.

London-based anti-racism campaigner Sasha Simic said he traveled to Greece to attend the demonstration.

"I'm here to show solidarity with Greek people fighting against Golden Dawn, an openly fascist organization that is trying to exploit the misery of the crisis that the bankers have caused to scapegoat immigrants, to scapegoat gay people, to scapegoat anybody that doesn't fit into their political schema. We know what happened in the 1930s with the rise of the Nazis. ... We are here to stop them," Simic told The Associated Press.